sandy island. But when they got there, there was no palace, there were no soldiers to guard it, there were no sentries at the door, there were no maid-servants nor slave girls. There was nothing there but just a sandy island in the middle of a dry river-bed. And on the sand lay the garland which the naughty little wife had forgotten. She took it up and put it round her neck.
But her husband asked her, "What has happened to your father's house?" The naughty little wife replied, all in tears, "As it came, so it went. But if you promise to forgive me, I shall tell you." The husband promised. So she told him how every Monday she had felt so hungry and how she had cooked her breakfast, and then, on hearing her husband's voice, had pushed it under their bed. She also told him that the god Shiva had turned the food into gold and jewels. "Then when you asked me," she went on, "I felt so frightened that I said they were presents from my father and mother and the rest of my family. And when you made me take you to my father's house, I prayed the god Shiva to create, if only for half an hour, a house for my
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